22 November, 2007

(By way of explaining my recent absence.....)My Auntie Muriel had eyebrows like two caterpillars on the south side of a tin roof in July. It was amazing how much she could say without speaking a word, how with facial expressions and body language, she could convey exactly what she was thinking.

I stood before my shattered family two days ago and delivered her eulogy.

08 November, 2007

They shall not grow old As we that are left grow old;Age shall not weary them norThe years condemn.At the going down of the sunAnd in the morning,We will remember them.

We seem to think of veterans as old men, old women, with lined faces and silver hair. It is true that most of the veterans we know are seniors, but it is also true that when they served, these old men and women were the ages my own children are now. Many of them were little more than children themselves. They gave whatever was left of childhood for what they believed was The Greater Good. They amaze me. They humble me. They make me weep in grateful wonder.Please, if you are not already familiar with it, you must see Terry Kelly's tribute, A Pittance of Time. The story: http://www.terry-kelly.com/pittance/pittance_en.htmThe video may be accessed by clicking 'video'. To see a larger-screen version of the video: http://www.army.gc.ca/chief_land_staff/remembrance/English/video.asp

03 November, 2007

At last, it is snowing. We have waited so long for snow this year. That is to say, I have waited. Others have not been nearly so anxious for the weather to turn.

That is their tragedy.

Fat, lazy, clusters of flakes are falling carelessly through the darkness to the ground. By morning, there will be enough for making snow-stomps, perhaps even snow enough for balling, or even…or even for a snowman.

Or two.

The tub has been filled with scalding, sudsy water, the candles have been lit, the house has been darkened, the blinds have been lifted. I am going to take myself off to sink under the blanket of steaming foam, and lie watching magical snow fall against the pink glow of the streetlamp.

Though Mike does seem to be a logical nickname for someone by the name of Michael, Mike is the name of someone else entirely, someone who is not Michael-Who-Is-My-Brother or even My-Brother-Who-Is-Michael.

Urgh.

I have heard my brother say, politely, of course, "It's…Michael…actually," more times than I can count. Prolly pretty close to eleventy-billion times...but not quite, 'cause sometimes it's just not worth the breath.

Y'know how it is when someone lumbers you with a nickname you dislike and then insists on calling you by that nickname, despite the nearly eleventy-billion times you have corrected them....politely, of course? Yeah. It's kinda like that for me as The Big Sister. I get all urgh-y when someone refers to my brother as Mike.

Who he clearly is not.

Not when he was smaller than me, not when he grew to be a foot taller than me…not even today when it happened again! (scowl)

With apologies to all the Mikes in the world, I say, once again, and with feeling, urgh!

About Mylene

Columnist, poet, freelance writer and scrapbooker, M. Mylene English delivers her sometimes quirky, sometimes irreverent views with honesty and humour. Her column, It'll Be Fine, appeared regularly in northern Alberta newspapers between 1992 and 2006.
Mylene has been a contributing writer for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine since 2005, and writes the LSS (Local Scrapbooking Store) article and Write On! column as well as the feature introductions. Her participation in several design teams has helped Mylene expand her creative outlook.
As print media coordinator for Dancetheatre David Earle, Mylene generates website content and creates the DtDE newsletters and programmes.
Previous work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Our Canada, Chicken Soup for the Mother and Daughter Soul, Chicken Soup for the Soul - Cookbook for Busy Moms, Chicken Soup for the Soul Celebrating Mothers and Daughters, as well as in various publications of local and regional interest.
Mylene lives in northern Alberta and says her husband and five children provide endless support of - and inspiration for - her work.

Places to go, people to see

Words to live by

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all." ~ Oscar Wilde

"We had to be who we were in order to become who we are." ~ M. Mylene English

"When things go completely wrong in life, it's not a new outlook a person needs, it's a new in-look." ~ James A. Edwards

"You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives." ~ St. Seraphim of Sarov

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson